How to Build Backlinks in 2026 (Beginner's Complete Guide)
How to build backlinks in 2026: combine four tactics in order of effort. Directory submission first (fastest, lowest effort, builds your base of referring domains), then digital PR and journalist requests, then resource page and broken link outreach, then guest posting. A new site should expect to spend month one on directories and profile links, and months two and three on outreach-based links that take longer to land but carry more weight.
That's the short version. The rest of this guide is the long version: what backlinks actually do for your rankings, the tactics that still work in 2026, a week-by-week plan for your first 90 days, and the mistakes that waste a founder's limited time. If you already know the basics and want a specific tactic, jump to how to get backlinks fast, EDU links, or GOV links.
What backlinks are and why they still matter
A backlink is a link from someone else's website to yours. Google's own SEO starter guide still lists links as one of the core signals it uses to discover and rank pages: search engines follow links to find new content, and the number and quality of sites linking to you is a proxy for trust.
For a brand-new domain, backlinks solve two separate problems:
- Discovery. Google can't rank a page it hasn't found. Links from sites that get crawled often (directories, news sites, active blogs) speed up how fast your new pages get indexed. If this is your bottleneck right now, see how to get backlinks indexed.
- Authority. Once discovered, a page's ranking position is influenced by how many quality domains vouch for it. This is measured informally as domain rating (DR) or domain authority (DA) by third-party tools. A DR 0 site with zero backlinks is invisible for anything competitive; a DR 20-30 site with real content has a fighting chance for long-tail terms.
Backlinks are not the only thing that matters. Content quality and matching search intent matter more once you're past the "does Google trust this domain at all" stage. But for a founder starting from zero, backlinks are the fastest lever you control directly, since you can't force Google to judge your content as more relevant, but you can control how many quality sites vouch for your domain this month.
There's also a distinction worth understanding early: not every backlink carries equal weight. A dofollow link passes ranking signal; a nofollow link is a hint Google may or may not follow, per its guidance on qualifying outbound links. Both still drive referral traffic and brand visibility, and a full backlink profile mixes both types naturally. See dofollow vs nofollow directories for how that split should look in practice.
How to build backlinks: the main tactics that work in 2026
1. Directory submission
Submitting your product to curated business, SaaS, and AI-tool directories is the highest-volume, lowest-effort tactic available to a new site. Each accepted listing is a backlink plus a discoverable profile page. Our beginner's list of directory submission sites has the DR-scored starting point; if you're only building a stack for SaaS specifically, see SaaS directories or AI tool directories.
The catch: not all directories are equal, and volume-based "submit to 5000 sites" services are exactly the pattern Google's spam policies call out as link spam. Stick to directories with real moderation, real DR, and a niche fit. Forty to a hundred good ones beats a thousand bad ones.
2. Guest posting
Writing an article for someone else's blog in exchange for a byline link. Still effective when the site is a genuine fit for your audience and the post adds real value, not a rehashed listicle. The failure mode is guest posting on any site that accepts a fee and a draft, which produces links Google increasingly discounts. Pick sites your actual ICP reads, not sites that exist to sell guest post slots.
3. Digital PR and HARO-style journalist requests
Journalists and newsletter writers regularly need sources, data, or quotes. Services like Qwoted, Featured, and X (formerly HARO) connect founders with reporters looking for commentary. A well-answered request can land a link from a genuinely high-authority news or trade publication, something no amount of directory submission replicates. It's a numbers game: expect to answer 10-20 requests for every one that gets used, and keep answers specific and quotable, not generic marketing copy.
4. Resource page links
Many sites maintain a curated "resources" or "tools we recommend" page in your niche. Find them with search operators like intitle:"resources" "saas tools" or inurl:resources "startup tools", then email the page owner explaining why your tool belongs there. This works because you're not asking for a favor, you're offering to fill a gap in a page they already maintain.
5. Broken link building
Find a resource page or article with a dead link, then suggest your (relevant, better) page as the replacement. Tools like Ahrefs or a free browser extension can spot 404s on a target page. This tactic has a high response rate because you're doing the site owner a favor, not just asking for one.
6. Competitor gap analysis
Pull a competitor's backlink profile and look for domains that link to them but not to you: guest posts they've published, directories they're listed in, roundups they got included in. Every gap is a pre-qualified prospect, since that site has already proven it links to companies like yours.
7. Niche-specific and government-adjacent links
Two smaller-volume tactics that are worth knowing about even if they're not where you'll spend most of your time: education-sector links from resource pages and scholarship programs (see how to get EDU backlinks for the honest version, including the parts that are genuinely gray-area), and government or civic links from local registries and economic-development sites (see how to get GOV backlinks). Both carry outsized trust signal per link, but volume is low. Treat them as a once-a-quarter project, not a monthly habit.
8. Programmatic and niche directories
Beyond the general SaaS/startup directories, a growing set of niche-specific directories (by industry, by tech stack, by region) accept submissions and often have lower competition for approval than the big generic ones. See niche directory submission sites for a curated starting list, and programmatic SEO for link building if you want to understand how some of these directory sites are built and ranked at scale.
Key insight: the tactics above aren't interchangeable, they're sequential. Directories build your base fast because approval doesn't depend on a stranger deciding your content is worth linking to. Outreach-based links (guest posts, HARO, resource pages) take longer because they do depend on that, but they compound: a good digital PR hit gets cited elsewhere, a strong guest post gets shared.
A realistic backlink sequence for your first 90 days
| Month | Focus | What you're doing |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | Foundation | Submit to 40-100 vetted directories (starter list); claim your Product Hunt-style launch listing; set up your domain rating baseline |
| Month 2 | Outreach warm-up | Build a list of 20-30 resource pages and broken-link targets in your niche; answer 5-10 journalist requests per week; publish 1-2 pieces of genuinely useful content worth linking to |
| Month 3 | Compounding | Pitch 3-5 guest posts to sites your ICP actually reads; follow up on outstanding outreach; run a competitor gap analysis and go after the easiest 10 overlaps |
Don't skip month 1 to jump straight to outreach. Directories give you referring domains while you're still building the relationships and content that outreach needs to succeed, and a completely bare backlink profile makes cold outreach less credible too.
If you'd rather compress month 1 into a few days instead of stretching it across four weeks, see how to get backlinks fast for the highest-velocity version of this same sequence.
Common mistakes founders make
- Buying links in bulk. Marketplaces selling "50 DA40+ backlinks for $99" are almost always PBNs (private blog networks) or link farms. Google actively devalues and can penalize sites using them. There is no shortcut around real relevance and real moderation.
- Ignoring relevance for DR. A DR 80 link from a completely unrelated site (a random forum, an off-topic directory) is worth less than a DR 30 link from a site your actual customers read. Relevance is a ranking signal on its own.
- Treating directory submission as the whole strategy. It's the foundation, not the building. See is directory submission still effective for where its ceiling actually sits.
- Never checking what you're building. Track your referring domains and DR over time with a free DR checker or SEO analyzer. If DR is flat after 60 days of real effort, something in your process is producing low-quality links, not just slow ones.
- No process for bad links. If you've ever paid for cheap backlinks or run an aggressive outreach campaign that got flagged, don't panic and disavow everything. Read how to remove bad backlinks first, most sites never need the disavow tool.
- Writing outreach emails that read like templates. A resource-page pitch or HARO answer that reads as copy-pasted gets ignored. Reference the specific page, the specific gap, and why your link fills it. See backlink outreach templates for structures that still leave room to personalize.
- Assuming a new link ranks immediately. Google has to crawl the linking page before your link counts for anything. If a batch of new links isn't showing up in your backlink tracker after a couple of weeks, don't assume they're worthless, check how to get backlinks indexed before you conclude the campaign failed.
- Chasing DR instead of authority backlinks. A high domain rating score means little if the specific pages linking to you are themselves ignored by Google. Understand the difference in what are authority backlinks.
How many backlinks do you actually need?
There's no universal number, it depends on your niche's competitiveness and your current DR. For the fuller answer with real benchmarks, see how many backlinks does a new site need. As a starting heuristic: 40-100 quality directory links gets a new SaaS site off DR 0, and from there the winning move is fewer, more relevant outreach links rather than higher volume.
If you're deciding between a DIY approach and paying for tools to track progress, a handful of free options cover the basics: our own DR checker shows your current domain rating pulled from live Ahrefs data, and our SEO analyzer flags on-page issues that limit how much value your new links can pass through. For a deeper comparison of paid tracking options once you're running multiple campaigns, see best backlink trackers compared and best link building tools 2026.
SaaS vs ecommerce: does the sequence change?
Mostly not. The order (directories first, then outreach) holds for almost any new site. What changes is where you spend outreach effort: a SaaS startup gets more mileage from developer communities, comparison roundups, and integration-partner links, covered in backlink strategy for SaaS startups. An ecommerce store gets more mileage from product roundups, affiliate relationships, and local business citations, covered in backlink strategy for ecommerce. If you're building a brand-new site from absolute zero, how to build backlinks for a new website walks through the first-30-days version in more detail than this guide covers.
FAQ
How long does it take to build backlinks in 2026?
Directory submissions show up as referring domains within days to a couple of weeks, once Google recrawls the linking pages. Outreach-based links (guest posts, HARO, resource pages) typically take 4-8 weeks from first contact to a live link, because they depend on someone else's editorial calendar and response time.
Do backlinks still matter for SEO in 2026?
Yes. Google's own documentation still lists links among the signals used to discover and rank pages. What's changed is tolerance for manipulation: low-quality, purchased, or spammy links are actively devalued or penalized, while relevant links from real, moderated sites still work.
What's the fastest way to get backlinks as a new SaaS?
Directory submission to a curated list of 40-100 sites is the fastest legitimate tactic, since approval doesn't depend on convincing a stranger your content deserves a link. See how to get backlinks fast for the full sequence.
How many backlinks does a new website need to rank?
There's no fixed number; it depends on your keyword's competitiveness and your niche. A realistic starting target for a new SaaS site is 40-100 referring domains from vetted directories in month one, then a steady trickle of outreach-based links after that.
Is it safe to buy backlinks?
No. Google's spam policies classify most purchased-link schemes as manipulative, and sites caught in large-scale buying can be penalized. Paying a service to submit your product to real directories by hand, with a proof report, is different from buying links, because the listings are genuine and moderated, not fabricated.
Start with the tactic that fits your first 30 days
If you're starting from zero, don't try to run all six tactics at once. Spend your first month on directory submission, since it's the only tactic where approval is entirely in your control. Browse the free database of 1,011+ directories with live DR scores, dofollow flags, and pricing, and work through the best 40-100 yourself.
If two days of manual form-filling isn't how you want to spend your first month, BacklinkBot submits your product by hand to 100+ directories (one-time, from $99) and sends a proof report with every live listing, so you can move straight to month 2's outreach work.
